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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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 Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 10:10 am Post subject: One Laptop Per Child - The Dream is Over |
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http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/09/09/why_did_one_laptop_per_child_fail
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| As Shaikh suggests, OLPC is a classic case of a development program more tailored to the tastes and interests of its funders, than the needs of the people it was supposed to help. Back to the drawing board. |
http://undispatch.com/node/8859
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The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project started out with big dreams. Founded by Nicholas Negroponte of MIT�s media lab, it promised a hundred dollar laptop that would be sold directly to Ministries of Education in huge lots. The laptop, they promised, was the new pencil. It was going to revolutionize education in the developing world.
It didn�t.
The laptop never came down to the hundred dollar price that was promised. The huge orders never materialized, and the project was very slow to allow sales to NGOs and charities instead of just governments. They abandoned the human-powered power source. They abandoned the special child-friendly OS. The laptop still didn�t sell to their target market in the developing world.
Americans wanted the OLPC. We fell in love with its tremendous promise and adorable shape. (note: I own an OLPC) We were the first market it conquered. OLPC launched a give one-get one promotion that let individuals pay $400 to donate one laptop and receive one for themselves. It was a huge success, except that OLPC wasn�t set up for that kind of customer order fulfillment. Laptops arrived far later than promised, and several thousand orders were simply lost.
Once the laptop finally started arriving in the developing world, its impact was minimal. We think. No one is doing much research on their impact on education; discussions are largely theoretical. This we do know: OLPC didn�t provide tech support for the machines, or training in how to incorporate them into education. Teachers didn�t understand how to use the laptops in their lessons; some resented them. Kids like the laptops, but they don�t actually seem to help them learn.
It�s time to call a spade a spade. OLPC was a failure. Businessweek called it two years ago. Now, Timothy Ogden, editor-in-chief of Philanthropy Action has made a compelling argument to give up on OLPC. He points out that supporting de-worming programs has more impact on child learning than the OLPC laptops. The laptops were designed without end-user input, they cost too much both to produce and to run, and they�re now being outcompeted by commercial laptops. Only about a million OLPCs have shipped so far.
Some people call OLPC Nick Negroponte�s vanity project. I wouldn�t go that far. But it�s not going to change the world, or even affect it all that much. One Laptop per Child got everyone thinking about the education in the developing world. It spawned the commercial laptops that are now out competing it. But that�s all. The dream is over. |
Onwards and upwards to the next pie in the sky development scheme!
In seriousness, this scheme is a good example of how the development industry works. They look at Sweden where students have computers and good educations and then at Niger where students have neither and they say "oh! They need computers!". So they dream up stories to tell each other about how this and that will be solved with computers, demand someone else pay for it, and give the students computers. The students continue to die of worms, malaria and the ones who live still don't get a passable education. And so on.
William Easterly had a good post on this a while back:
http://blogs.nyu.edu/fas/dri/aidwatch/2009/07/we_already_tried_this_in_1938.html
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Is African poverty caused by lack of the necessary technical knowledge applied to disease, nutrition, clean water, and agriculture? Reading many discussions, like that of the recent food security initiative, or the UN Millennium Project (UNMP) on how to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, would make you think so. Would it change your mind if that technical knowledge already existed and there were attempts to apply it as long ago as 1938? The following table compares the technical recommendations from a prominent and exhaustive survey of African problems headed by Lord Hailey in 1938 to those of the UNMP in 2005.
(--open link to see table. It's worth the peek -- )
http://blogs.nyu.edu/fas/dri/aidwatch/2009/07/we_already_tried_this_in_1938.html
Enthusiasts for technology fixes for poverty concentrate almost exclusively on the science and the technical design -- this is a characteristic fault of poverty solvers from Silicon Valley, the Gates Foundation, doctors, and natural scientists.
All of the above seem to forget that technology does not implement itself. Technical knowledge needs people to implement it � people who have the right incentives to solve all of the glitches and unexpected problems that happen when you apply a new technology, people who make sure that all the right inputs get to the right places at the right time, and local people who are motivated to use the new technology. |
Africa is the West's plaything. We don't know what causes development so we experiment a thousand times in a thousand different ways on Africa. We're no further ahead. They're worse off now then at the point of decolonization. Little has been accomplished. The hundreds of billions in aid have been for very little aggregate gain (including the good faith aid, and not just the farm subsidies in cover). Like virtually every other important policy in the west, we've completely hit a wall and yet don't have the ability to stop what doesn't work. We're drunk on platitudes. "Experts" actually thought (think?) that giving the poorest of the poor in the world computers would lead to educational development. This is so stupid I can't adequately slam it enough. |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 10:41 am Post subject: |
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| He points out that supporting de-worming programs has more impact on child learning than the OLPC laptops. |
Uh yeah, no kidding. I only ever heard about this program through Bill Gates' involvement with it, but the whole thing seemed to have a sort of fetishistic religious quality about it, as if laptops were these magical devices that, once in the hands of third-world students, would automatically transform their world in ways hitherto unimaginagle. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 10:45 am Post subject: |
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^ Did you see the comparison of recommendations from then and now? Amazing, isn't it?
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| the whole thing seemed to have a sort of fetishistic religious quality about it, as if laptops were these magical devices that, once in the hands of third-world students, would automatically transform their world in ways hitherto unimaginagle. |
From the OLPC site, their mission statement:
http://laptop.org/en/vision/index.shtml
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| Mission Statement: To create educational opportunities for the world's poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning. When children have access to this type of tool they get engaged in their own education. They learn, share, create, and collaborate. They become connected to each other, to the world and to a brighter future. |
Hope wrapped in a series of thick platitudes. |
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Rusty Shackleford
Joined: 08 May 2008
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| Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 4:02 pm Post subject: |
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| One thing that came out of it was the netbook craze. Basically a smaller underpowered laptop that costs the same as a normal laptop. |
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Kikomom
Joined: 24 Jun 2008
Location: them thar hills--Penna, USA--Zippy is my kid, the teacher in ROK. You can call me Kiko
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| Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 6:16 pm Post subject: |
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Here's Verizon GIVING them away, after picking one of their bundle plans--just pay taxes, s/h.
Think they got a good deal on a warehouse full of them? |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Wed Sep 09, 2009 6:41 pm Post subject: |
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| On the other hand wrote: |
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| He points out that supporting de-worming programs has more impact on child learning than the OLPC laptops. |
Uh yeah, no kidding. I only ever heard about this program through Bill Gates' involvement with it, but the whole thing seemed to have a sort of fetishistic religious quality about it, as if laptops were these magical devices that, once in the hands of third-world students, would automatically transform their world in ways hitherto unimaginagle. |
Iodized salt is another one.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/opinion/04kristof.html?_r=1&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink |
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Kikomom
Joined: 24 Jun 2008
Location: them thar hills--Penna, USA--Zippy is my kid, the teacher in ROK. You can call me Kiko
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ddeubel
Joined: 20 Jul 2005
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| Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 12:50 am Post subject: |
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Here's the top lifesaving/changing invention. Winner of an Index award...
(and OLPC also won one).
http://www.indexaward.dk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=76&Itemid=44
I'm a big believer in Negroponte despite his inept interpersonal skills. He gets it. Even without mentioning how he singlemindedly created the pressure to get others making netbooks and more efficient/cheaper devices, his ideas and methods are more than sound.
People don't get it because they've been institutionalized to death - like Chomsky says -- much of education is about that - keeping people stupid and ignorant.
OLPC brings the world to children. They don't need teachers nor anyone to tell them/show them how to use a computer. Turn it on and learn. I really had to laugh a year or more ago when all the critics came out saying...."blablablabla...you need teachers to teach them how to use it, you just can't give kids this etc...".
Sugata Mitra in his Hole in the Wall project, http://www.hole-in-the-wall.com/ really demonstrates this remarkably and repeatedly throughout India. Watch his TED talk about the social nature of learning and how all kids can/do/will learn. you'll be blown away. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/sugata_mitra_shows_how_kids_teach_themselves.html
School is often what makes students NOT learn.
OLPC will remain a fav. charity. Negroponte had the guts to make all those profiteers like Intel with its Classmate - compete. Also, not a better network engineer around than Bletsas.
DD
http://eflclassroom.com |
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Kuros
Joined: 27 Apr 2004
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| Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 12:56 am Post subject: |
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| ddeubel wrote: |
People don't get it because they've been institutionalized to death - like Chomsky says -- much of education is about that - keeping people stupid and ignorant. |
I agree this is what Chomsky does.
Anyway, its hard for me to fault people for failure stemming from naivete when the funds are willfully given (i.e. private funds) |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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RufusW
Joined: 14 Jun 2008
Location: Busan
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| Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 8:39 am Post subject: |
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Better to try and fail than never try at all...
Haters..... |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 9:06 am Post subject: |
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| mithridates wrote: |
| On the other hand wrote: |
| Quote: |
| He points out that supporting de-worming programs has more impact on child learning than the OLPC laptops. |
Uh yeah, no kidding. I only ever heard about this program through Bill Gates' involvement with it, but the whole thing seemed to have a sort of fetishistic religious quality about it, as if laptops were these magical devices that, once in the hands of third-world students, would automatically transform their world in ways hitherto unimaginagle. |
Iodized salt is another one.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/opinion/04kristof.html?_r=1&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink |
Mith:
Are you suggesting that iodized salt is comparable to de-worming, as being a worthwhile intitiative to advance education, or to the laptop program, as being pie-in-the-sky?
Personally, I could see iodized salt as having a more tangible impact on intellectual development, since it has a direct effect on one's physical condition, which in turn is strongly connected to one's ability to learn. Whereas the connection between owning a laptop and being able to process information doesn't seem quite so direct to me. |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 10:02 am Post subject: |
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| On the other hand wrote: |
| mithridates wrote: |
| On the other hand wrote: |
| Quote: |
| He points out that supporting de-worming programs has more impact on child learning than the OLPC laptops. |
Uh yeah, no kidding. I only ever heard about this program through Bill Gates' involvement with it, but the whole thing seemed to have a sort of fetishistic religious quality about it, as if laptops were these magical devices that, once in the hands of third-world students, would automatically transform their world in ways hitherto unimaginagle. |
Iodized salt is another one.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/opinion/04kristof.html?_r=1&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink |
Mith:
Are you suggesting that iodized salt is comparable to de-worming, as being a worthwhile intitiative to advance education, or to the laptop program, as being pie-in-the-sky? |
The former. Those programs aren't the least bit glamorous but they're much more effective.
Luckily, even though OLPC wasn't a success, the price of computers has plummeted in the meanwhile so it doesn't really matter all that much. |
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ddeubel
Joined: 20 Jul 2005
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| Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 3:23 pm Post subject: |
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| Whereas the connection between owning a laptop and being able to process information doesn't seem quite so direct to me. |
It is not the laptop that is important. It is what the laptop allows to happen. Communities get wireless access to a world of information. It is the network and information that is important. Further, what was found in all the projects so far was how important the laptop was "as a light source". It brought conversation and community into a dark household.
Experience / environment is a primary factor in education. Just as a book helped launch a million minds - a laptop can do the same at a very minimal cost.
I'm only scrapping the surface. There are a plethora of other reasons for using a laptop to bring education/experience to people. It is much colder than a TV AND even hotter than a book/print. (I'm alluding to McCluhan's framework here). Just what is needed.
I have used this video to teach the "concept of print" but it is suitable here. This video shows how people might of once reacted to that other piece of technology that brought us out of the dark ages - The Book. (but again it wasn't the book/laptop but the printing press / network ).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Cd7Bsp3dDo
DD
http://eflclassroom.com |
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Kikomom
Joined: 24 Jun 2008
Location: them thar hills--Penna, USA--Zippy is my kid, the teacher in ROK. You can call me Kiko
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| Posted: Fri Sep 11, 2009 4:25 am Post subject: |
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After watching the Sugata Mitra vid, "How Kids Teach Themselves", it reminded me of the Confucian analect which has intrigued me since I first saw it a month or so ago:
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VII.8: The Master said, "I do not open up the truth to one who is not eager to get knowledge, nor help out any one who is not anxious to explain himself. When I have presented one corner of a subject to any one, and he cannot from it learn the other three, I do not repeat my lesson."
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Could the other 'three corners' be those kids directing/learning from each other? |
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